Belarusian authorities have devaluated the Belarusian ruble by 55 percent. Some sources point to a panic in the capital city, with people frantically buying all kinds of goods. Negative political consequences are also possible.

I'm using my laptop, typing these lines while waiting in line in front of a filling station. Just about 300 meters to go, not much compared to what is happening elsewhere. Before midnight, unlike in the Cinderella story, our gas will turn not into pumpkin but into gold, as the filling prices will increase by 25 percent. In 90 minutes the dollar exchange rate will go up by 60 percent, and this considering that Petr Prokopovich, head of the National Bank of Belarus, swore on March 17 that there would be no devaluation for as long as he had his post.

My friends in Ukraine ask me how the Belarusians are feeling about Lukashenko's decision to trade Beltransgaz for a loan from Russia. I tell them there is no feeling, simply because the whole affair isn't public knowledge, save for a carefully edited news bulletin on Belarus' first government-run channel. We learned about the deal from Kudrin and Lazarev, with the hostess, sporting a pink blouse, happily announcing that Belarus would now receive a loan from Russia, that the end of the world had been postponed. The lady seemed to forget to inform that the privatization of Belarusian businesses, with Beltransgaz in the first place, cost three billion dollars. Now the only golden-egg-laying goose Belarus has is its potash company, along with less important businesses like refrigerator production, steelworks and a toy factory that specializes in orange crocodiles and pink elephants.

A Saskatchewan man who said he wanted to save his daughter from a life of drugs apologized Friday for shooting her boyfriend, but the victim's family didn't accept Kim Walker's regrets.

"You will never fully understand what you have done and I will never forgive you for it," James Hayward's brother Dan said in a victim impact statement released outside court.

Portions of the statement were read at Walker's sentencing hearing. Court of Queen's Bench Justice Ellen Gunn said she would decide his fate July 13.

Dan Hayward said his brother wasn't a monster or a saint.

"He was a 24-year-old man with problems, someone that made mistakes, just as many other people do in life," he said. "He never got the chance to straighten his life out because Kim Walker stole that chance from him."

Walker was convicted of manslaughter Thursday after being tried for a second time in Hayward's death. The 24-year-old was shot several times in his home in Yorkton, Sask., in March 2003.

Hudson - A fire at a chemical manufacturer in western North Carolina has forced the evacuation of people living within two miles of the plant.

Authorities say the Chemical Coatings plant near Hudson in Caldwell County caught fire shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday.

Emergency officials say one person was taken to the hospital, but the extent of that person's injuries was not known.

Authorities have shut down U.S. 321 in front of the plant as firefighters battle the blaze. Evacuations were ordered as smoke filled the air.

Chemical Coatings makes dyes, lacquers and other coatings for furniture and other products. Hudson is located about 70 miles northwest of Charlotte.

The city is considering a ban on dangerous kite flying from city parks.

A report going to the Parks and Environment Committee next week recommends a ban on kites with strings made of hazardous materials including fishing line or piano wire.

The report also recommends a permit process for competitive kite flying and a ban on kites in parks that have "significant bird activity."

City staff are calling for a $300 fine for any infraction.

The eccentric man on a mission declared the world would end on a specific date, and the saved would be raptured. An amused media paid close attention to the prediction, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief or had a good laugh when nothing happened.

Sound familiar? Add a couple twists: it was 1925, not 2011. And the raptured - 144,000 "brides of the lamb" to be exact - would make a pit stop in the woods outside San Diego before heading to the planet Jupiter and then to heaven.

Such was the prediction of a pair of renegade Seventh-day Adventists who turned themselves into a prophet and prophetess of doom. One was a wallpaper-hanger from New York and the other a Hollywood homemaker who liked to claim visions and later tried to kill one of her former supporters.

A French airliner plunged out of control for four minutes before crashing into the Atlantic in 2009, investigators said, in a report raising questions about how crew handled a "stall alarm" blaring out in the cabin.

Information gleaned from black boxes, and recovered almost two years after the disaster killed 228 people, confirmed that speed readings in the Airbus cockpit had gone haywire, believed to be linked to the icing of speed sensors outside the jet.

As Air France pilots fought for control, the doomed A330 dropped 38,000 feet, rolling left to right, its engines flat out but its wings unable to grab enough air to keep flying.

The plane crashed on June 1, 2009, en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Black boxes stopped recording at 0214 GMT.

France's BEA crash investigation agency said in a detailed chronology of the crash that commands from the controls of the 32-year-old junior pilot on board had pulled the nose up as the aircraft became unstable and generated an audible stall warning.

Bargain hunters scoured shelves at many of Canada's Blockbuster Video locations Friday, as nearly 150 stores set for closure began clearing out DVDs and video games at deeply discounted prices.

The movie rental chain, which is in receivership, began liquidation sales at 146 Canadian locations that are scheduled to be shut down in June.

A steady stream of shoppers seeking first pick of stock was greeted with signs saying "Everything Must Go" at one downtown Toronto Blockbuster locations.

Another location was so busy by mid afternoon that a long lineup of customers snaked around the store - some shelves had already been stripped bare.

Deal hunters picked over the merchandise, while yellow signs emblazoned with "30 per cent off," lured them to search through more shelves and bins.

Several customers walked out with stacks of stock they could barely carry.

A freak accident with a high pressure air hose left Steven McCormack painfully puffed up like the Michelin Man, but now safely back to normal he is enjoying an inflated reputation.

McCormack, a small town truck driver in Opotiki, New Zealand, ended up Saturday in the intensive care unit at a hospital in Whakatane, blown up to twice his normal size.

McCormack, 48, was standing on the rigging between his truck and trailer at Waiotahi Contractors when he slipped and fell onto a brass valve that was connecting the truck's brakes to the compressed air supply. The nozzle pierced his left buttock and air rushed into his body at 100 pounds per square inch.

"In a matter of minutes, my body blew to twice its size," McCormack told New Zealand's 3News.

His boss, Robbie Petersen, witnessed the accident and told ABCNews.com, "His body started to literally blow up and before we knew it, his face went up like a balloon."

Petersen's son Spike Petersen is the manager of the company and was also on hand at the time of the accident. Spike was on the phone with 111, the New Zealand equivalent of 911. He told ABCNews.com that their small town only has two ambulances and both were busy at the time of the accident. The nearest rescue helicopter based two hours away was also busy.

"We knew we needed help quick," said Spike. "The pain was unreal. Lifting him up and off the nozzle was the worse."

As the air pumped and McCormack began to scream, co-workers struggled to pull him off of the nozzle. In a life-saving move, they managed to stop the air supply and put him on his side. As McCormack struggled to breathe, co-workers tried to keep him calm by putting ice packs around his neck. It was an hour before paramedics arrived.

Maria Shriver leaked the story about husband Arnold Schwarzenegger's lovechild because she was so angry with him, it has been claimed.

Gossip website TMZ.com are reporting Shriver was 'hysterical' when she discovered that Schwarzenegger had fathered a son with Mildred Baena and wanted to call a press conference to make the story public.

But, after her friends calmed her down, the idea of leaking the story to TMZ and the LA Times newspaper then started to form.

Riot police in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, beat peaceful demonstrators and should be held to account, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

The international human rights group said the Georgian government should launch an immediate and impartial investigation into excessive and disproportionate use of force.

Riot police dispersed a five-day central Tbilisi protest against President Mikheil Saakashvili's rule in the early hours of Thursday.